By Dan Beard

Fig. 133.
A Simple Elder-Gun.

When the author was a very small boy he was taught by some playmates to make
an elder gun, a simple contrivance, made of a piece of elder or any other hollow
stick. A long notch cut in one side admits a spring made of whalebone (Fig.
133). By pushing the spring back the short arrow shown in the illustration can
be propelled quite a distance. If instead of the awkward whalebone spring a
piece of elastic be used, a much neater gun can be made. Fig. 134 shows a pistol
made with an elder barrel and a stock of pine. A plunger, similar in the
squirt-gun, is made with an edge to catch in the trigger.

Fig. 134.
Plunger Pistol

An elastic band is bound to the barrel with string, and the loop fastened to
the butt end of the plunger. When the latter is drawn back to the trigger it
stretches the elastic. By pulling the trigger toward you it loosens the plunger,
which flies back with a snap, sending the arrow out with considerable force.

The barrel of the pistol may be fastened to the stock by two strips of tin or
leather. The diagram shows the form of the trigger, which should be made so as
to move readily backward or forward upon the screw that fastens it to the stock.

Fig. 135.
Pistol without a Plunger.

The diagram shows the form of the trigger, which should be made so as to move
readily backward or forward upon the screw that fastens it to the stock. Fig.
135 shows how a pistol can be made to work without a plunger. In this case the
barrel is partly cut off from A to B. The arrow should be made to fit in the
groove, so that when the elastic is loosened it will strike the arrow in the
same manner that the string of a cross-bow does. Both these Pistols, if made
with good, strong elastic, will shoot quite a distance, and if the arrows are
aimed with a tack or pin in the head they can be used in target practice. We now
come to a gun in which the spring is the principal part.

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